29 April 2012

My other ship’s a clipper: inside the restored Cutty Sark

A tour of the
newly restored Cutty Sark by guest blogger Anna Faherty. Anna is a writer,
editor and lecturer and a long-term advisor to the HMS Beagle Project. She
works with major publishers and national museums and has just completed a
mobile learning project for the National Maritime Museum.

Unlike some
of my colleagues, I didn't get involved with the HMS Beagle Project because of
a love of ships, the Royal Navy or maritime history. What attracted me was a
huge amount of admiration for Darwin, and in particular, for his sense of
adventure and enquiry.

Of course,
in the Britain of the 1800s, an aspiring adventurer needed one thing above all
else: a ship. Ships were the only way to escape our small island, and HMS Beagle was the ship that not only
carried Darwin around the world, it also sparked an incredible intellectual
adventure. The six years Darwin spent travelling as a naturalist companion to
Captain Robert FitzRoy set him on a path that ultimately led to the development
of the theory of evolution by natural selection. That's why the world came to
know the Beagle, and that's why it is
still one of our country's best-known ships today.

Ten years
after The Origin of Species outlined
Darwin's world-changing theory, and just as updates for the fifth edition were
being finalised, another legendary ship first set sail. The Cutty Sark wasn't a Royal Navy ship, and
she certainly wasn't intended for science, surveying or fighting. Over twice
the length of the Beagle, the Cutty Sark was a 'clipper', a term
coined for long, narrow ships with tall masts and large sail areas. Powered by
32,000 square feet of canvas, the Cutty
Sark's streamlined shape was designed for one thing: speed.

Entering the
newly restored Cutty Sark at Greenwich you are left in no doubt about why
speed was of the essence. Strolling through a doorway sliced through the
American rock elm hull, you find yourself in the midst of tea, tea and more
tea. Here in the depths of the lower deck you walk on a floor of tea chests,
stoop below a ceiling of tea, and even smell the distinctive leaves around you.
Unfortunately, not being a tea-drinker myself, I was unable to identify the
specific chosen aroma - and neither could the member of staff I asked.

We may be
known as a nation of tea drinkers, but it's difficult to imagine just how big
the tea business was in the late 19th century. In 1849 Britain imported over 25
million kilograms of Chinese tea. That's enough for 8 billion cups. And with
customers keen to drink the freshest brew, using the fastest ships wasn't just
important, it made you more money. The first tea to arrive back home commanded
a premium price, making 'first to market' everyone's aim. The Cutty Sark didn't disappoint. She may famously
have been beaten by the Thermopylae in 1872, after losing
her rudder off Indonesia, but she regularly got away from China before her
rivals.

Often
described as ‘the last surviving tea clipper’, the Cutty Sark wasn't all about the Shanghai to London route, though.
When steamships took over the tea trade – they were faster and also more able
to navigate the Mediterranean on the shorter Suez Canal route – the Cutty Sark was put to several new uses.
She even ended up visiting many of the same ports as the Beagle had done years before.

Clambering
up from below, the tween deck reveals the ship's post-tea purpose: carrying
wool back from Australia. You also learn a little about the crew and life on
board. Despite her size, the Cutty Sark
had less than half as many men aboard as the Beagle, with only 19 required once she swapped tea chests for wool
bales. Their regular dinner was apparently pea soup and salt pork and they
drank coffee and lime. This deck also includes a table-top interactive tool where
you can try your hand steering a course back from Australia. If you make the
most of the trade winds and avoid the doldrums, you might make it in 70-80 days.

In 1895 (26
years after she was launched) the Cutty
Sark was sold to a Portuguese company. Renamed Ferreira, she transported various cargoes from Lisbon to Brazil,
what was then Portuguese East Africa and the Southern USA. At the ripe old age
of 53 – by which time HMS Beagle had
been retired, broken up and (probably) half-buried in an Essex marsh – the Cutty Sark was bought by a Captain
Dowman of Falmouth, Devon "for sentimental reasons." No longer used
for active duty, she became a training vessel for boys joining the Royal Navy
and was also opened to the public – therefore becoming an ‘exhibition ship’ before
either HMS Victory or the USS Constitution
followed suit.

Stepping out
of the low-ceilinged storage areas onto the main deck is a thrilling
experience. You're in the thick of a maritime adventure, surrounded by rigging
and ropes and able to hold the ship's wheel below flapping flags. You can
explore the crew's quarters, including a compact and bijou Captain's cabin,
which can be hired for your own private dining experience.

That
'corporate entertainment' aspect comes into its own at the last port of call on
your visit: the other-worldly under-ship space that is the perfect venue to
impress clients. Standing under the gleaming barnacle-free copper-clad
hull (another reason the ship was so fast) is a slightly surreal, but entirely
memorable experience. This isn't a coincidence. Building in opportunities to
generate revenue from corporate
hire is an integral part of the business plan, where ordinary visitors and
school groups aren’t enough to underwrite the attraction’s running costs. The
HMS Beagle Project could surely learn some lessons from this in our own
development.

If my first
sight of the revamped ship is anything to go by, public, corporate and
school-age visitors will all be impressed. Although I’d seen and visited the
ship before, she’s been under wraps for so long that I was visibly shocked by
my first view as I walked out of the Docklands Light Railway station that bears
her name. It's not simply her size – though she is big. The elegant masts (the
tallest of which reaches over 45m above her deck) and the rigging (all 11 miles
of it) designed to hold 32 sails are stunning. She may be stranded in what some
have described as a ‘hovercraft’ but she's no less impressive for it.

All in all Cutty Sark is a spectacular sight that
conjures up the adventure of the era, and demonstrates the heart-stopping impact
of a beautiful ship. A visit should be compulsory for any wavering Beagle sponsors. Even for a non-maritime
buff, she made me believe in the impact a rebuilt Beagle could have, and she's already steering others on a course
towards celebrating
our maritime heritage. So, until we can make Professor Simon Keynes’s wish
come true, for now, my other ship’s a clipper…

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